Ray LaHood: Cuts a ‘calamity’ for air travel

The Obama administration is heightening its warnings about looming budget cuts by emphasizing an area the traveling public already dreads: gridlock in the skies.

The White House rolled out Republican Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Friday to warn that sequestration would bring “calamity” to air travel by forcing the FAA to close dozens of control towers and eliminate overnight shifts at others, in turn prompting airlines to cancel or delay flights. Delays would be as much as 90 minutes, he said.

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The FAA soon backed up his words with the release of further details about where towers could close — from Opa-Locka, Fla., to Snohomish County, Wash.

LaHood said the more than $600 million cut to the FAA would be a “meat ax” that would bring pain to Americans and have “a very serious impact on the transportation services that are critical to the traveling public.”

The cuts would also slow airport maintenance because of the thousands of furlough days that would hit the Transportation Department’s workforce of 55,000, thousands of whom are responsible for keeping the skies safe, the former Illinois congressman told reporters.

To keep passengers safe, the secretary said, fewer planes are going to fly.

“We believe that it’s not possible to do the same schedules with less people,” said LaHood, who is reaching out to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the airlines and committees in Congress to inform them of the effects.

But a trio of Republicans accused the administration of “creating alarm” in a quest to ramp up political pressure to deal with the sequester and suggested late Friday there were other areas of “fat” that could be cut by the FAA.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Reps. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) said the dire warnings were not backed up by financial data and suggested the FAA could instead cut the $500 million it spends each year on consultants or the $200 million it spends on supplies and travel.

“Before jumping to the conclusion that furloughs must be implemented, the administration and the agency need to sharpen their pencils and consider all the options,” the three said in a joint statement. Thune is the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee. Shuster is chairman of the House Transportation Committee and LoBiondo is chairman of the aviation subcommittee.

The industry group Airlines for America said Thursday that it’s “confident” airline operations wouldn’t take a major hit from sequestration. But LaHood said airlines may change their tune after DOT gives them a call.

“When they see the kind of cutbacks that are going to be made at some of these towers, they’re going to have no choice,” LaHood said.

A spokeswoman for A4A said Friday that the administration’s list of cuts represents an effort that appears “to share our goal of impacting as few travelers as possible.”

“Air transportation is a key driver of our economy and should not be used as a political football,” said spokeswoman Jean Medina. “We urge Congress and the administration to work together to ensure that the 2 million customers and 50,000 tons of cargo that fly every day can continue to get to their destinations safely and efficiently.”

LaHood said the delays would happen precisely because of his department’s commitment to safety. The FAA, he said, would pare down its daily workforce through furloughs to ensure the same level of safety that would allow the safest trend in U.S. airline travel history — no crashes since 2009 — to continue.